Air India to be formally inducted into Star Alliance today

New Delhi: Air India will be formally inducted into the Star Alliance, an exclusive club of 26 major global airlines, on Friday.

Teams of Air India, Star Alliance and its member carriers would complete the final works to ensure the Indian airline can offer all customer benefits from today.

The ceremony at the IGI Airport would see Air India unveiling a Boeing 787 Dreamliner and an Airbus A-320, signifying its international and domestic operations, painted with the Star Alliance's star-shaped logo along with the colourful Maharaja logo of its own.

The integration process started in December 2007 but was suspended in July 2011 to allow Air India to complete its merger with Indian Airlines before fully integrating it into the alliance network.

The move would help passengers to access the alliance's global network of over 21,980 daily flights to 1,328 airports in 195 countries. Star Alliance members jointly own 4,338 aircraft and fly over 640 million passengers a year.

Air India would add about 400 daily flights and 35 new destinations in India to the Alliance network, with the biggest growth coming from its home market where it flies to 62 cities.

Passengers would also experience a new protocol governing check-in to boarding and in-flight meal experience, specially for business and first class passengers, to be implemented across the entire Air India network, starting with Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Out of the 26 airline members of Star Alliance, 13 fly to 10 destinations in India. Air India's addition would take the international air traffic market share in and out of India from 13 percent at present to 30 percent, a senior alliance official said.With PTI Inputs